Branching Paths: Using digital interactive storytelling to encourage marginalized young people to engage with creative writing.

Abstract

This paper reports upon the Digital Interactive Storytelling in the Community (DISC) project conducted in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University, UK, in May/June 2022. This initiative was run in collaboration with Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service. The event was part of ongoing research and practice employing digital creative writing to stimulate collaboration and critical thinking for learners who might not normally have access to digital tools or feel motivated to try creative writing. In this iteration of our work, the participants had disengaged from learning and had committed minor offences leading to court orders or cautions. Our project enabled them to write, design and produce a digital interactive narrative and publish it online. This paper outlines the process employed to implement and evaluate their creative and analytical work. It also references and builds on the scholarship underpinning our ongoing participatory research. We analyse the completed work and the participants’ reactions to the project, identifying five key pedagogic strategies that may aid other educators designing and running similar collaborative learning initiatives. They are: de-risking autonomy, flexible scaffolding, modular instruction, behaviour modeling, and role reinforcement. We discuss each of these proposed best and consider how they may enhance the engagement of previously disengaged leaners.